Kids Want To Know: How Penguins Shed Their Skin

It's natural for kids to want to know how other things grow. Coleman asks: how to penguins shed their skin? 2 Wants To Know went to the Greensboro Science Center to answer the question.

Senior keeper of the birds and mammals, Carmen Murray at the centers said, "Penguins don't actually shed their skin. They shed their feathers and it's through a process called molting."

The process happens once a year, with the first molt process happening when a penguin is between one-and-a-half and two-years-old. After that, it happens once a year.

"The process itself takes anywhere from four to six weeks for it to be completed," said Murray. "They do it completely to lose all their old beat up feathers that are broken and have been destroyed from the preening."

Preening is where penguins clean themselves and also bite their own feathers. That happens from them hitting rocks and being in the water a lot. Murray said it is really important for penguins to stay waterproof when they're in the water.